A New Start
by Griddlebone
Summary: The day Summer came to Corinth, she made a deal with the devil.


Author's Note: This was written for Estirose for Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange. It's also my first attempt at writing for RPM, so please go easy on me!

* * *

There were many ways to Corinth. Summer Landsdown just never thought her path to the domed city would be in the back of a hideous and run-down ice cream truck, or walking barefoot across miles of dangerous countryside without even Andrews to look out for her.

After all, she was a _Landsdown_. She could practically hear her father telling her that it simply wasn't done.

Except, when it came down to it, Summer would rather do something unthinkable than die. When her parents were too busy for her and her friends had all left her for dead and all the money in the world couldn't save her, she'd picked herself up and made her way to Corinth anyway. And she'd done it the hard way.

It had cost her Andrews, but she was alive. Realizing how selfish and petty she'd been all her life, and how cruel she'd been to him, her only real friend, she thought it would probably be more fitting if she was the one lying dead back there, twenty-odd miles from Corinth. But instead, it was Andrews who had died, and Summer who had carried on.

It seemed like he was all she could think about as she stumbled through the gate and into Corinth. Into safety. She thought he might actually be proud of her for making it this far all on her own, when she'd never had to do anything for herself before in her entire life.

But now that she was inside the walls of Corinth and safe from the Venjix virus and its attack bots, she wasn't entirely sure what to do. She kept walking at random, wandering between the various refugee tents, vaguely hoping to see someone familiar or find some sign that might guide her. Where was a lost Landsdown supposed to go, anyway? Surely her parents wouldn't be caught here, with the ordinary people.

What would Andrews do in a situation like this? More importantly, what would he hope she would do in this situation? She slowed her steps and finally stopped, and took another look around her.

Amidst the chaos of tents and colorful signs, there were people everywhere. Dirty people, injured people, terrified people.

Summer might have been as dirty as everyone else after her long walk, but she wasn't injured and she wasn't scared anymore. Maybe she could find a way to help somehow.

"Summer!"

Much to her surprise, her parents _were _there among the ordinary people, and they seemed to be looking for her. Unthinking, she rushed into their waiting arms. It was so good just to see something familiar amid all the chaos and confusion.

"What happened to your shoes?" her mother asked.

Summer laughed in a giddy, relieved way. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

As her parents led her away from the throngs of panicked people, Summer answered their questions as vaguely and gently as she could, and wondered where they were taking her. Did they already have a house set up in Corinth? Had they planned for this and never told her?

As it turned out, they weren't taking her far. There was a separate medical facility prepared for the wealthier citizens of Corinth not far from the main gates. And since she was a Landsdown, that was where her parents took her to make sure she'd survived the journey intact.

Thankfully, aside from some bruises and sore feet, Summer was whole and healthy. The young paramedic gave her something for the pain and something to drink to help with her mild dehydration, and left her with her parents.

Compared to the area nearest the gates of Corinth, this place was fairly quiet and peaceful. There weren't many people around, and the only noise was an occasional transmission on the radio.

In the quiet, Summer felt isolated and lonely, even though her parents were with her. She wasn't sure what to think. They were her parents and she loved them, no matter how misguided they might be, but they'd gotten themselves to safety first. So far as she knew, they hadn't even attempted to contact her, or get anyone outside the dome to look for her. Had they even thought about her, when they were on their way to Corinth? Or had they only thought of her later, after they knew they were safe?

A few days ago, she would have told herself that of course they had worried about her. She was their daughter, their only child. Of course they thought about her and feared for her and wanted to save her.

She wasn't so sure anymore.

And that was why, when she heard the pilot's distress call come over the radio, she knew she had to help. It didn't matter what her parents might think and it didn't matter that she had only just made it to safety herself. She could reach him in time even if no one else was willing to try, she knew she could.

She could make sure that at least one other person didn't end up abandoned to Venjix, as she so nearly had. So when she was sure her parents weren't paying attention, she slipped over to where the paramedic was standing. "I want to help."

"He's too far out," the man started to protest again.

"I can make it," she insisted. "I can save him."

Something in her expression, her grim determination, must have changed his mind.

"Let me do this," she added, catching the way he glanced nervously at her parents. "You don't have to tell them. I just want to help."

Finally, he relented. "Fine. Come with me."

He saw her outfitted with a paramedic's uniform, a pair of boots and a bike; she almost made it away from the little sanctuary before her parents caught her.

"Summer! You're not actually going out there to rescue a pilot?" her mother wailed.

"Why are you doing this?" her father demanded. "You're a Landsdown. You don't help people!"

"I do now," she snapped, finally out of patience with them. Remembering the black Landsdown diamond on its golden chain around her neck, which she had completely forgotten until now, she ripped it off and gave it back to her parents. Maybe they would understand that, since they couldn't seem to understand what she'd gone through or why she had to do this.

She gave them one last pleading look, and raced off before either of them could form a coherent response.

-x-

As she raced across the barren countryside beyond the walls of Corinth, Summer had a lot of time to think.

She remembered the last conversation she'd ever had with Andrews, she remembered the way her parents had tried to stop her from doing this, the way they had tried to urge her to keep always thinking of herself first and everyone else second. She didn't want to be that girl anymore, the girl that people left for dead and who didn't know what to do when money couldn't solve her problems for her. She wanted to be the kind of girl that would make Andrews proud.

And she was suddenly sure she couldn't be that kind of girl if she continued to live under her parents' thumb. She would have to find a new path in life: her own path.

The thought was terrifying... but she realized it was actually a lot less scary than what she was doing right now.

As she shot over a rise on her bike and finally caught sight of the downed pilot, she also saw the approaching horde of Venjix attack bots. Visions of the attack that had killed Andrews flashed in her mind.

_Sorry, boys, you're not killing anyone this time._

"Come on!" she shouted, skidding to a stop beside the pilot.

He stared in disbelief as she rushed over to help him up and onto the bike behind her. They were off again before the attack bots even got their first shots off.

Sand flew everywhere and adrenaline rushed through her as she skillfully guided the bike between the laser blasts and back to Corinth and safety. But as they drew closer to the city, she had to wonder: had she made it in time? Would they still be able to get in?

It was hard to tell from a distance, but apparently her passenger had better eyes than she did.

"Slow down," the pilot shouted at her when they were still several hundred yards from the city gates. "We're not gonna make it."

She could see now that they were lowering the city gates, but those things were slow and her bike was fast. "We're gonna make it."

"We're not gonna make it!"

"Hang on!"

At the last possible second she twisted the bike so they slid sideways under the gate: just in time. As they came to a stop, safe and sound in Corinth, Summer realized she had never felt so very alive in her entire life.

"See?" she said, turning to smile at the man she had rescued. "I told you."

The Landsdowns came rushing over to scold their daughter as the paramedics came to tend to the injured pilot. Summer wished she could have followed him; he seemed like the kind of person she would like to get to know better, or maybe even be friends with. At the very least he'd seemed stunned and grateful for the unexpected rescue. But her parents were having none of that.

"Summer!"

"You could have been killed! What in the world were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that someone needed to save that man's life." Seeing that they did not understand, she sighed. "Mom, Dad, look... Things have changed. I think we need to talk."

The idea of having A Talk with their daughter seemed to set them on edge, but they reluctantly agreed. Summer led them back to the medical facility where she'd gotten the bike and the uniform, because it was quiet there and at least somewhat private compared to the people milling around the gates, still looking for lost loved ones who might not have made it to Corinth in time.

"Mom, Dad," Summer began, "you might want to sit down. I want to ask you for something."

"Anything, Summer!" her mother promised. "Anything you want, anything money can buy. It's all yours! We're just so glad you're safe!"

"Well... that's just it. I don't want any money. Now that I'm here in Corinth, I want to try being a regular person."

"But you're a Landsdown!" her father interrupted. "You can't be a regular person. How will you live without money?"

"I like money, I do. I like being a Landsdown, too... but I want to live like a regular person now," Summer said, as if somehow putting it in words could make her parents understand. As if it could really be that simple, even though she knew it never could. "I want a fresh start. I want to see what it's like to not be rich."

She didn't add that she wanted to see if she could really be a good person, instead of being so self-centered all the time.

"But Summer," her mother protested.

"You're a _Landsdown_," her father added.

The first thought that flashed through her mind was _I'm not sure I want to be a Landsdown anymore, if this is what being a Landsdown means._

Since she couldn't tell them that, she said, "But I'm not _just _a Landsdown. I'm Summer, only I realized today that I don't even really know who Summer is. And... I can't just live my whole life not knowing who I am."

"But... why?"

She had almost forgotten that they hadn't been with her. They hadn't heard Andrews's final words. They would never know how he had waited so long, hoping to find the good in them - the deeply buried good in _her_. "I have to do this," she said. "And I'll do it with your blessing or without. But I had hoped you would support my decision."

"Summer," her mother protested, obviously bewildered. "Are you really saying that you want to be a... _regular _person?"

"Yes." She looked them both in the eyes, unwilling to back down. They may have conveniently failed to see how much she had changed on her trip to Corinth, and they might have somehow managed to overlook her newfound willingness to disobey them and put her life on the line for a complete stranger, but she was not going to let them talk her out of this. If she stayed with them, it would be too easy to fall back into the trap of being a Landsdown first and Summer second - or not at all. If she stayed with them, she was almost positive she would go right back to being the spoiled girl she had been before, simply because it would be too easy. And she didn't want to disappoint Andrews like that.

Wherever he was now, he'd promised that he would be watching over her. She could only hope that he really could see her now, and would see that for the first time in her life she was trying - really trying - to do the right thing.

"We... need to discuss this privately," her father said after a moment of stunned silence.

"Go on. I'll wait."

They walked off a few feet, glanced back at her once, and then began whispering heatedly to each other. Summer frowned as she watched them converse, bracing herself for some sort of opposition. She could tell how upset they were with her, and some part of her still hated disappointing them even though she knew she was doing the right thing. But when her parents walked back over to where she was waiting, they both seemed to have resigned themselves to the inevitable.

"Summer, are you _sure _you want to live like a regular person?" her father asked. "You know that means we'll have to pretend you don't exist and aren't the heir to the Landsdown fortune. Is that what you really want?"

She gave a cautious nod. The way he said it made it sound awful. It would have been so easy to second guess her decision... Deep down inside she had to admit it was tempting to try to just go back to the way things had been, to let money make things all better again. But money couldn't fill the empty place inside of her. If only her parents could see that.

"Then we'll do that."

"What?" Summer blurted it out before she even realized she had spoken.

Her mother nodded sadly. "If you think living without money will help you find out who you are, we're willing to let you do that."

"But we don't want to lose our daughter forever," her father went on. "So we've decided to give you one year for this little experiment of yours."

"One year," Summer repeated, hardly believing her luck. Suddenly, she smiled. "You're going to let me live on my own for a whole year?"

"Now, hear us out," her mother interrupted.

She should have known there would be more to it than that.

"You can have one whole year on your own, but then we want you back. And we'd like you to promise us something else," her father said.

Summer bit back an angry response. Of course her parents wanted something from her. Everything had its price. She'd just never had any problem paying before, because she'd had all the money she could have ever needed. Now that she wasn't that spoiled rich girl anymore, or was trying not to be, she would have to make sacrifices.

Well, her world had already fallen apart once today. What was the worst that could happen? "What do you want me to do?"

"We'd like you to marry Chaz," her mother said sweetly. "Settle down. Start a family."

Summer realized then that her parents were hoping that being forced to find her own way without relying on the Landsdown name or Landsdown money would also force her to change her mind. They actually thought she'd come crying back to them the moment things got tough, and then everything would go back to the way it had been, as if nothing had ever changed.

But _everything _had changed, or maybe it was only Summer who had changed.

"Chaz? Chaz Winchester?" she asked. "Mom, I don't even _like _him."

"Honey, that doesn't matter," her mother assured her, and Summer found herself wondering if her parents even liked each other. "A year is an awfully long time... And besides, we already agreed to the marriage all those years ago."

Summer didn't remember being part of any such agreement, but her parents probably hadn't bothered to ask her anyway. They had probably just gone ahead and done whatever they wanted, like they always did. She didn't like this one bit, but they were her parents and she loved them. She didn't want to break ties with them forever, no matter how tempting that sounded right now. If she didn't take this deal, she wasn't sure they would offer another one, much less a better one.

"One year to live my own life without any interference from you," she said, her voice steadier than she had thought it would be. "I accept."

A year was a long time, but it already seemed like it would be over far too quickly. She had one year before her parents would drag her - kicking and screaming if they had to - back into this life. One year to try to make Andrews proud, and to show the world she could be more than just another Landsdown. One year to think of a way out of this devil's bargain. One year...

She would have to make the most of it.


End file.
